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Author: 


Andrews,  John  Bertram 


Title: 


A  practical  program  for 
the  prevention  of... 


Place: 


New  York 

Date: 

1915 


MASTER   NEGATIVE   # 


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Business 
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Am58 


American  Association  on  Unemployment. 

A  practical  program  for  the  prevention  of 
unemployment  in  America.  4th  ed.  New  York, 
American  Association  on  Unemployment  and 
American  Association  for  Labor  Legislation 
(American  sections  of  the  international 
associations)  1915. 

22  p. 

"First  tentative  draft  issued  December, 
1914 . " 

AUG  2  5  1955 


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A  PRACTICAL  PROGRAM 


FOR 


The  Prevention  of 
UNEMPLOYMENT 

in 

America 


FOURTH   EDITION 
(First  tentatire  draft  issued  December,  1914) 


John  B.  Andrews,  Secretary 
AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  ON  UNEMPLOYMENT 

AND 

AMERICAN   ASSOCIATION   FOR   LABOR  LEGISLATION 

(American  Sections  of  the  International  Associations) 

131  East  23d  Street,  New  York  City 

May,  1915 


\ 


IP'.  I 


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OUTLINE 

I.    Establishment  of  Public  Empi.ovment  Exchanges 6 

I.  Local  Employment  Exchanges 6 

3.  State  Systems lo 

3.  Federal  Employment  Bureau 11 

II.    Systematic  Distribution  of  Public  Work 12 

I.  Adjustment  of  Regtilar  Work 13 

a.  Emergency  Work 13 

III.  Rbgularization  of  Industry 13 

I.  Regularization  by  Employers 14 

a.  Regularization  by  Workers 17 

3.  Regularization  by  Consumers 18 

IV.  Unbmfloymbnt  Insurance 19 

I.  Organization  of  Out-of-Work  Benefits  by  Trade  Unions 30 

3.  Public  Subsidies  to  Trade  Union  Out-of-Work  Benefits 30 

3.  Public  Unemployment  Insurance 30 

Other  Helpful  Measures 

I.  Industrial  Training si 

3.  Agricultural  Revival 33 

3.  Constructive  Immigration  Policy 33 

4.  Reducing  the  Number  of  Young  Workers 33 

5.  Reduction  of  Excessive  Working  Hours 33 

6.  Constructive  Care  of  the  Unemployable aa 


it. 


"13 


^ 


FOREWORD 


The  time  is  past  when  the  problem  of  unemployment  could 
be  disposed  of  either  by  ignoring  it,  as  was  the  practice  until 
recent  years  in  America,  or  by  attributing  it  to  mere  laziness  and 
inefficiency.  We  are  beginning  to  recognize  that  unemployment 
is  not  so  much  due  to  individual  causes  and  to  the  shiftlessness 
of  "won't-works,"  as  social  and  inherent  in  our  present  method 
of  industrial  organization.y 

During  the  winter  of  1914-1915  the  Metropolitan  Life 
Insurance  Company,  at  the  request  of  the  committee  on  unem- 
ployment appointed  by  the  mayor  of  New  York,  estimated  after 
a  careful  canvass  of  its  industrial  policy-holders  that  442,000 
persons  were  unemployed  in  New  York  City.  In  the  first  two 
weeks  of  February  a  careful  canvass  was  made  by  agents  of  the 
federal  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  on  the  basis  of  which  it  was 
estimated  that  398,000  were  still  unemployed  at  that  time.  The  dis- 
puted estimate  of  325,000  unemployed  in  that  city  alone,  made 
during  the  previous  winter  by  the  Association  for  Improving 
the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  seems,  therefore,  not  to  have  been 
exaggerated.  At  the  same  time  relief  agencies  in  many  other 
cities  were  swamped.  Municipal  lodging  houses  were  turning 
away  many  genuine  seekers  after  work— to  sleep  on  bare  boards 
at  the  docks,  in  warehouses,  even  in  morgues. 

The  United  States  Census  for  1900  showed  that  6,468,964 
working  people,  or  nearly  25  per  cent  of  all  engaged  in  gainful 
occupations,  had  been  unemployed  some  time  during  the  year. 
Of  these  3,177,753  lost  from  one  to  three  months'  work  each; 
2,554,925  lost  from  four  to  six  months  each;  736,286  lost  from 
seven  to  twelve  months  each. 

Similar  data  were  collected  by  the  government  in  1910,  but 
they  are  still  unpublished. 

In  1901  the  federal  Bureau  of  Labor  investigated  24,402 
working  class  families  in  thirty-three  states,  and  found  that 
12,154  heads  of  families  had  been  unemployed  for  an  average 
period  of  9.43  weeks  during  the  year.  The  New  York  State 
Department  of  Labor  collected  reports  each  month  during  the 


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ten  years  1901-1911  from  organized  workmen  averaging  in 
number  99,069  each  month,  and  found  that  the  average  number 
unemployed  each  month  was  14,146,  or  18.1  per  cent. 

The  federal  Census  of  Manufactures  for  1905  shows  that  in 
one  month  7,017,138  wage-earners  were  employed,  while  in 
another  month  there  were  only  4,599,091,  leaving  a  difference 
of  2,418,047.  That  is  to  say,  nearly  two  and  a  half  million 
workers  were  either  unemployed  or  compelled  to  seek  a  new 
employer  during  the  year.  These  figures  were  drawn  from  the 
manufacturers'  own  records. 

It  is  important,  therefore,  that  those  who  are  aiming  at 
the  prevention  of  unemployment  in  America  should  never  for- 
get that  it  is  a  problem  continually  with  us,  in  good  seasons 
as  well  as  in  bad  seasons.  Occasional  crises,  with  their  sym- 
pathetic demands  for  temporary  relief,  should  not  blind  us  to 
the  need  for  a  constructive  program.  In  the  meantime  the 
community,  as  a  result  of  its  past  neglect  to  adopt  some 
energetic  constructive  policy  on  unemployment,  is  being  con- 
stantly confronted  with  an  army  of  idle  workers  whose  distress, 
which  becomes  conspicuous  with  the  approach  of  bitter  weather, 
demands  and,  according  to  the  analysis  here  presented,  deserves 
adequate  relief. 

Much  unemployment  is  clearly  caused  by  lack  of  efficient 
means  for  supplying  information  of  opportunities  and  for 
■enabling  workers  to  move  smoothly  and  rapidly  from  job  to 
job.     Public  employment  exchanges  must  be  established. 

A  careful  arrangement  of  public  works  to  be  increased  in 
the  slack  seasons  and  lean  years  of  private  industry  would  help 
equalize  the  var>'ing  demand  for  labor.  Public  tvork  must  be 
systematically  distributed. 

Much  unemployment  is  due  to  irregularity  of  industrial 
operations  over  which  the  workers  have  no  control.  Periodic 
abnormal  excess  of  labor  supply  over  labor  demand  is  caused 
by  the  fluctuations  of  industry,  which  in  its  present  disorganized 
form  makes  necessary  constant  reserves  waiting  to  answer  calls 
when  they  come.  Hundreds  of  thousands  more  of  workers 
are  needed  in  good  years  than  in  bad  years,  and  in  each  industry 
many  more  are  needed  in  the  busy  season  than  in  the  slack 
season.  Furthermore,  in  almost  every  business,  special  calls 
arise  for  more  workers  to  be  taken  on  for  a  few  weeks,  a  few 
days,  or  even  a  few  hours.     Thp  reserves  necessary  to  meet 


these  cyclical,  seasonal  or  casual  demands  should  be  reduced 
to  a  minimum.    Industry  must  be  regularized. 

While  reserves  of  labor  are  essential  to  the  operation  of 
fluctuating  industries,  the  industry  and  the  public  should  recog- 
nize their  responsibility  to  return  these  workers  to  industry  with 
efficiency  unimpaired  and  in  good  health  and  spirits,  and  to  pre- 
serve them  from  degenerating  through  privation  into  the  class  of 
unemployables.  Adequate  unemployment  insurance  must  be 
established. 

In  addition  to  these  measures  for  directly  attacking  unem- 
ployment, a  variety  of  other  policies  which  are  indirectly  help- 
ful should  also  be  encouraged.  Among  the  most  important  of 
these  are  better  industrial  training,  a  revival  of  agriculture,  a 
proper  distribution  of  immigrants,  and  adequate  care  for  the 
unemployable. 

The  general  scheme  of  economic  reconstruction  and  organi- 
zation here  outlined  is  based  upon  a  number  of  intensive  studies 
carried  on  during  1914  by  special  investigators  for  the  American 
Association  on  Unemployment,  and  will,  it  is  believed,  lead  to 
conspicuous  and  permanent  improvement  in  what  has  well 
been  called  one  of  the  most  perplexing  and  urgent  of  industrial 
problems. 


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THE  PREVENTION  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT 

Any  comprehensive  and  workable  campaign  for  the  pre- 
vention of  unemployment  should  emphasize  the  following  lines 
of  activity:  I.  Establishment  of  public  employment  exchanges; 
II.  Systematic  distribution  of  public  work;  III.  Regularization 
of  industry;  and  IV.    Unemployment  insurance. 

I.  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PUBLIC  EMPLOYMENT 
EXCHANGES.  An  essential  step  toward  a  solution  of  the 
problem  of  unemployment  is  the  organization  of  the  labor 
market  through  a  connected  network  of  public  employment 
exchanges.  This  is  vitally  important  as  a  matter  of  business 
organization  and  not  of  philanthropy.  It  is  of  as  much 
importance  for  the  employer  to  find  help  rapidly  and  efficiently 
as  it  is  for  the  worker  to  find  work  without  delay.  The  neces- 
sity of  organized  markets  is  recognized  in  every  other  field  of 
economic  activity,  but  we  have  thus  far  taken  only  timid  and 
halting  steps  in  the  organization  of  the  labor  market.  The 
peddling  method  is  still,  even  in  our  "efficient"  industrial  system, 
the  prevalent  method  of  selling  labor.  Thus  a  purely  business 
transaction  is  carried  on  in  a  most  unbusiness-like,  not  to  say 

medieval,  manner. 

The  system  of  employment  exchanges  in  order  to  be 
thoroughly  effective  should  be  organized  not  only  by  muni- 
cipalities and  states,  but  also  by  the  federal  government.  Local 
exchanges  should  be  established  in  every  city,  either  by  the 
municipality,  or  by  the  state,  or  by  both  in  conjunction.  These 
should  be  brought  into  a  connected  system  by  means  of  state 
offices  which  would  act  as  clearing  houses  and  make  possible 
the  movement  of  workers  throughout  the  state  to  the  localities 
where  they  are  needed.  The  work  of  the  state  offices  should  be 
further  co-ordinated  by  an  interstate  exchange  of  information  and 
assisted  by  a  federal  employment  bureau  organized  on  a  national 
basis. 

About   sixty  public  employment  exchanges  have  been  estabUshed 
by  twenty-one  American  states,  in  addition  to  which  about  twenty  have 


been  opened  by  municipalities.  In  the  Congress  which  adjourned  on 
March  4,  1915,  no  fewer  than  six  bills  were  introduced  for  the  esUbliah- 
mcnt  of  a  natioDal  system  of  labor  cxchanccs  under  tiie  federal  fovera- 
ment.  In  Great  BriUin  such  a  national  system,  con^rising  over  400 
local  exchanges,  is  maintained  by  the  board  of  trade,  ^ri&ile  Germaiqr 
has  323  offices  and  France  162,  all  maintained  by  local  authorities. 

1.  Local  Employment  Exchanges.  The  local  bureaus — 
•tate  and  municipal — should  aim  at  a  rapid  connection  between 
the  "right  man  for  the  job  and  the  right  job  for  the  man."  Their 
watchword  should  be  efficient  service  to  both  employer  and 
worker,  and  they  should  aim  to  extend  this  service  as  completely 
as  possible  into  all  industries  and  all  occupations.  In  establish- 
ing and  operating  these  exchanges  the  following  points  are 
important : 

(1)  Location  and  Character  of  Offices.  Well  arranged, 
roomy,  easily  accessible  offices  should  be  chosen,  in  good 
neighborhoods. 

(2)  Departments.  Offices  should  be  divided  into  separate 
departments  for 

o.    Men,  women  and  children. 

b.  Separate  industrial  groups,  such  as  skilled  and  unskilled  labor, 
farm  labor,  domestic,  clerical  and  factory  labor,  and  the  handicapped. 
In  time,  as  their  organization  improves,  they  may  need  to  establish 
special  departments  for  certain  large  skilled  trades,  such  as  bookbinding, 
textiles,  and  boot  and  shoe  making,  and  for  professional  grot4)s,  such 
as  teachers  and  skilled  technical  workers. 

Practically  every  public  employment  exchange  in  America  has 
separate  departments  for  men  and  for  women.  Four  have  separate 
juvenile  departments.  Division  into  skilled  and  unskilled  is  made 
in  two  offices,  and  in  the  new  municipal  exchange  in  New  York 
City  there  are  seven  departments:  Female:  (1)  mechanical, 
industrial  and  professional;  (2)  domestic,  hotel,  restaurant  and 
institutional  help.  Male:  (1)  mercantile,  professional,  technical, 
and  printing  trades;  (2)  juvenile;  (3)  building,  machine  shop  and 
foundry,  boot  and  shoe,  textile,  factory  help,  engineers  and  firemen; 
(4)  culinary,  including  cooks,  waiters,  countermen,  etc.;  (5) 
agricultural  and  general  unskilled  labor.  In  British  exchanges  the 
general  register  (which  excludes  casuals)  is  divided  into  twenty- 
two  separate  sections. 

(3)  Vocational  Guidance.  There  should  be  a  special 
department  for  vocational  guidance,  to  co-operate  with  educational 

7 


and  health  officials,  with  unions  and  with  employers,  in  endeavor- 
ing to  place  young  workers  where  they  will  have  an  opportunity 
for  industrial  training  and  for  real  advancement,  instead  of  leav- 
ing them  to  drift  into  blind-alley  occupations.  This  department 
should  be  in  charge  of  a  superintendent  experienced  in  vocational 
work  and  should  be  supervised  by  a  special  sub-committee  on 
juvenile   employment. 

Vocational  guidance  is  systematically  carried  on  by  the  public 
employment  exchanges  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  three  other  states  the 
beginnings  have  been  made  by  interested  superintendents.  In  Great 
Britain  vocational  guidance  is  a  recognized  and  important  function  of 
the  government  system  of  labor  exchanges.  In  London  a  local  com- 
mittee for  each  exchange,  including  representatives  of  the  county  council, 
the  head  teachers'  association,  employers  and  workers,  co-operates  with 
the  health  authorities  and  advises  chUdren  and  their  parents. 

(4)  Selection  of  Applicants.  Applicants  should  be  placed 
on  the  basis  of  fitness  alone.  The  offices  should  not  be  allowed 
to  become  resorts  for  sub-standard  labor,  but  should  strive  to 
build  up  their  business  by  attracting  and  serving  the  better 
grades  of  workmen. 

Fitness  is  reported  as  a  basis  of  placement  in  twenty  American 
public  exchanges. 

(5)  Decasualization  of  Casual  Labor.  One  of  the  most 
important  functions  of  a  public  labor  exchange  should  be  the 
decasualization  of  casual  labor.  The  New  York  Commission 
on  Unemployment  reported  in  1911  that  two  out  of  every  five 
wage-earners  are  obliged  to  seek  new  places  one  or  more  times 
every  year.  When  all  casual  workers  are  hired  through  a 
common  center,  employment  can  be  concentrated  upon  the 
smallest  possible  number  instead  of  being  spread  over  a  large 
group   of   underemployed. 

Such  systems  are  in  successful  operation  in  Great  Britain  among 
31,000  Liverpool  dock  laborers,  the  cloth-porters  of  Manchester,  and 
the  skilled  ship-repairers  at  Cardiff  and  at  Swansea. 

(6)  Dovetailing  of  Seasonal  Industries.  The  dovetailing 
of  seasonal  trades,  so  as  to  provide  continued  employment  for 
workers  during  the  slack  seasons  of  their  ordinary  occupation, 
offers  a  promising  field  for  public  employment  exchange  activity. 

8 


During  the  winter  building  trades  workers  could  take  up  ice  cutting 
or  logging,  or  do  some  of  the  less  skilled  work  in  shoe,  textile  or  other 
factories  which  are  busier  at  that  season.  Through  the  London  labor 
exchanges  women's  work  in  ready-made  tailoring,  which  is  busiest  in 
the  spring  and  fall,  has  been  dovetailed  with  hand  ironing  in  laundries, 
which  is  heaviest  during  the  summer. 

(7)  Neutrality  in  Trade  Disputes.  These  agencies  should 
be  held  true  to  their  public  character  and  remain  neutral  in  all 
trade  disputes.  Applications  from  plants  affected  by  strikes  or 
by  lockouts  should  be  received,  but  workers  applying  for  posi- 
tions involved  should  be  explicitly  informed  of  the  existence  of 
the  dispute.  Statements  from  both  sides  about  the  issues 
involved  should  also  be  shown  to  the  applicants  when  they 
can  be  secured. 

This  is  the  method  followed,  with  complete  satisfaction  to  both 
sides,  in  most  American  public  employment  exchanges,  as  well  as  in 
England,  France,  Germany  and  Switzerland. 

(8)  Advancement  of  Transportation.  The  officers  should 
be  empowered  to  advance,  under  careful  safeguards,  railroad 
fares  to  workers  when  necessary. 

The  Wisconsin  exchanges  sometimes  turn  over  to  applicants  the 
transportation  advanced  by  the  prospective  employer,  checking  the  man's 
baggage  to  the  employer  as  a  safeguard.  In  Great  Britain  the  exchanges 
advance  carfare  to  workers  residing  more  than  five  miles  from  the 
place  of  employment.  In  Germany  workmen  sent  more  than  about 
fifteen  miles  are  enabled  to  ride  for  half  fare. 

(9)  Co-operation  with  Other  Agencies.  Offices  should  co- 
operate with  other  employment  bureaus,  municipal,  state  and 
federal,  in  exchanging  applications  for  help  and  for  work,  and  in 
auopting  uniform  systems  of  records. 

(10)  Civil  Service.  Only  persons  qualifying  through  civil 
service  examinations  should  be  employed  in  the  work  of  the 
offices. 

Civil  service  qualification  is  required  in  the  state  exchanges  of 
Massachusetts,  Minnesota,  New  York  and  Wisconsin,  and  in  some 
municipal  exchanges,  including  that  in  New  York  City.  In  Great 
Britain  the  employees  of  the  national  system,  about  3,500  in  number, 
are  under  civil  service. 


[ 


(11)  Representative  Committee.  Each  office  should  work 
under  the  supervision  and  advice  of  a  representative  committee 
composed  of  representatives  selected  by  both  employers  and 
workers. 

Snch  representative  committees  have  been  established  in  Wisconsin, 
are  required  under  the  New  York  law,  and  have  long  been  an 
important  adjunct  to  the  exchanges  in  Great  Britain  and  in  France. 

2.  State  Systems.  The  most  advantageous  working  of  the 
local  exchanges  requires  that  these  be  united  in  efficient  state 
systems,  among  whose  duties  would  be: 

(1)  Establishment  of  Local  Exchanges.  The  state  should 
open  local  exchanges  at  all  important  industrial  or  agricultural 
centers,  except  where  this  has  already  been  done  by  the  local 
authorities. 

As  already  shown,  twenty-one  states  have  made  provision  for  local 
exchanges. 

(2)  Co-operation  with  Local  Authorities.  Wherever  it  is 
possible,  the  state  system  should  co-operate  with  the  local 
authorities  in  establishing  and  conducting  the  local  exchange. 

In  Wisconsin  the  cities  pay  for  office  space,  heat,  light,  telephone 
and  janitor  service;  the  state  pays  for  supplies,  salaries  and  administra- 
tive expenses.  In  Cleveland  and  in  Cincinnati,  O.,  also,  the  city  and 
state  share  in  the  expense. 

(3)  Regulation  of  Private  Exchanges.  Except,  perhaps,  in 
the  largest  cities,  needful  supervision  and  regulation  of  private 
exchanges  are  best  carried  on  by  state  authorities  closely  con- 
nected with  the  public  system.    Methods  of  regulation  include: 

a.  Licensing  and  inspection. 

b.  Use  of  license  fees  to  enforce  regulations. 

c.  Making    appropriate    administrative    rules    for    private    agencies 
after  classifying  them  according  to  type. 

d.  Prescribing  forms  for  records,  uniform  with  those  used  at 
puUic  offices. 

e.  Publishing  information  of  the  work  of  private  offices  together 
with  that  of  the  public  bureau. 

Private  agencies  are  supervised  by  the  same  administrative 
body  which  conducts  public  labor  exchanges  in  Colorado,  Con- 
necticut, Illinois,  Indiana,  Kansas,  Michigan,  Missouri,  New  York, 
Ohio,  Oklahoma  and  Wisconsin. 


(4)  Statistics.  As  a  basis  for  future  preventive  action,  for 
vocational  guidance,  and  for  other  purposes,  the  exchanges 
should  carefully  collect  data,  comparable  from  year  to  year  and 
for  the  various  sections  of  the  state,  on  the  amount  and  duration 
of  unemployment,  the  ages  and  occupations  of  those  affected, 
the  causes,  and  on  other  points  which  will  suggest  themselves. 

Detailed  statistics  of  this  nature  are  available  through  the  British 
labor  exchange  sjrstem,  through  which  the  national  unemployment 
insurance  benefits  are  also  paid. 

(5)  Bulletins.  Periodical  bulletins  should  be  issued,  show- 
ing the  state  of  the  demand  for  labor  and  the  supply  in  the 
various  districts  and  industries  within  their  field. 

Monthly  news  letters  are  issued  by  the  Massachusetts  public 
exchanges,  and  similar  bulletins  are  provided  for  in  the  New  York 
State  law. 

3.  Federal  Employment  Bureau.  The  federal  employment 
bureau  would  have  a  valuable  function  in  co-ordinating  the  work 
of  the  local  bureaus  and  in  organizing  the  labor  market  on  a 
national  basis.  Such  a  federal  system  would  have  the  following 
functions : 

(1)  Establishment  of  Public  Exchanges.  With  careful 
regard  to  existing  state  and  municipal  exchanges,  the  federal 
bureau  might  find  it  advantageous  to  open  oflfices  of  its  own 
where  needed. 

(2)  Assistance  to  Local  Bureaus.  Among  the  means  by 
which  the  federal  bureau  could  assist  the  work  of  the  local 
exchanges  are : 

a.  Interchange  of  Information.  A  systematic  interchange  of 
information  on  the  state  of  the  labor  market  should  be  developed 
through  close  correspondence,  the  issuance  of  periodical  reports  and, 
where  advisably  the  use  of  telegraph  and  telephone. 

b.  Standard  Record  System.  A  standard  system  of  records  Aoold 
be  devised  and  adopted  for  the  whole  country  which  would  make 
possible  comparison  of  results  and  compilation  of  statistics  on  a 
national  basis. 

c.  District  Clearing  Houses.  The  country  should  be  divided  into 
districts,  with  a  clearing  house  in  each.  The  district  clearing  houses 
would: 

11 


yrr 


(o)  Exchange  information  between  local  bureaus  and  district 
branches  of  the  federal  bureau. 

(&)  Receive  reports  of  local  public  and  private  agencies,  and  advise 
and  supervise  these  agencies. 

Great  Britain,  with  an  area  only  one  twenty-fifth  as  vast  as 
ours,  has  been  divided  for  the  purpose  of  administering  its  employ- 
ment bureau  system  into  eight  divisions,  each  with  its  divisional 
o£Bce  as  a  clearing  house  and  channel  of  conununication  with  tb« 
central  ofiBce  in  London. 

(3)  Regulation  of  Private  Agencies.  In  so  far  as  private 
employment  agencies  do  an  interstate  business  they  are  properly 
subject  to  federal  supervision  and  regulation  under  the  inter- 
state commerce  clause  of  the  federal  constitution.  Complete 
regulation  might  be  secured  through  the  use  of  the  federal  tax- 
ing power. 

II.     SYSTEMATIC      DISTRIBUTION      OF      PUBLIC 

WORK.  A  well  developed  system  of  labor  exchanges  will  not, 
of  course,  create  jobs,  but  in  addition  to  bringing  the  jobless 
workers  quickly  and  smoothly  in  contact  with  such  opportunities 
as  exist,  it  will  register  the  rise  and  fall  in  the  demand  for  labor. 
This  knowledge  will  make  possible  intelligent  action  for  the 
prevention  and  relief  of  unemployment  through  the  systematic 
distribution  of  public  work  and  the  pushing  of  necessary  pro- 
jects when  private  industry's  demand  for  labor  is  at  a  low 
level.  Public  work  will  then  act  as  a  sponge,  absorbing  the 
reserves  of  labor  in  bad  years  and  slack  seasons,  and  setting 
them  free  again  when  the  demand  for  them  increases  in  private 
business. 

1.  Adjustment  of  Regular  Work.  Even  at  slightly  addi- 
tional cost  regular  public  work  should  be  conducted  in  years  of 
depression  and  seasons  of  depression. ^A  program  of  the  amount 
of  public  work  contemplated  for  several  years  in  advance  should 
be  laid  out  and  then  carefully  planned  to  be  pushed  ahead  in 
the  lean  years  which  experience  has  shown  to  recur  periodically, 
and  in  the  months  when  private  employment  is  at  a  low  eb^ 
European  experience  shows  that  it  is  essential  to  the  success 
of  such  a  program  that  the  work  be  done  in  the  ordinary  way, 
the  workers  being  employed  at  the  standard  wage  and  under 
the  usual  working  conditions  and  hired  on  the  basis  of  efficiency, 

13 


not  merely  because  they  happen  to  be  unemployed.  This 
method  of  equalizing  the  demand  for  labor  is  the  easiest  and 
cheapest  way  of  maintaining  the  reserves  which  private  in- 
dustry demands.  The  independence  and  self-respect  of  the 
workers  are  preserved,  while  necessary  and  productive  work  is 
accomplished  for  the  community. 

The  English  statistician  Bowley  estimates  that  if  in  the  United 
Kingdom  a  fund  were  set  aside  for  public  work  to  be  pushed  in  tinkes 
of  depression,  an  average  of  $20,000,000  yearly,  or  only  3  per  cent  of 
the  annual  appropriation  for  public  works  and  services,  would  be 
sufficient  to  balance  the  wage  loss  from  commercial  depression. 

Duluth,  Minn.,  has  adopted  the  policy  of  building  sewers  through- 
out the  winter  in  order  to  equalize  the  amoimt  of  employment.  Detroit 
has  found  the  digging  of  sewers  in  frozen  groiud  no  more  expensive 
than  under  the  blazing  summer  sun. 


2.  Emergency  Work.  In  communities  which  have  not 
yet  developed  such  a  program,  or  in  times  of  special  emergency, 
it  is  a  much  wiser  policy  to  start  large  projects  for  public  works 
than  to  support  the  unemployed  through  private  charity  or 
public  relief.  This  should  not  be  "relief  work"  or  "made  work" 
simply  to  keep  idle  hands  busy,  but  should  be  necessary  public 
work  which  would  have  been  undertaken  normally  in  the  course 
of  time,  but  which  can  be  concentrated  in  the  time  of  emergency. 

Over  fifty  American  cities  successfully  carried  on  such  work  during 
the  winter  of  1914-1915.  The  work  done  included  digging  sewers,  lay- 
ing water  mains,  improving  roads  and  parks,  erecting  school  houses, 
and  repairing  other  public  buildings. 

The  Idaho  legislature  of  1915  passed  an  act  establishing  the  right  of 
every  person  who  has  resided  in  the  state  for  six  months  to  ninety  days' 
public  work  a  year,  at  90  per  cent  of  the  usual  wage  if  married  or  having 
dependents,  otherwise  at  75  per  cent  of  the  usual  wage. 

For  women  and  girls,  and  for  men  unsuited  by  training  or  by 
physique  for  the  rougher  kinds  of  public  work,  the  Brooklyn  Comjnittee 
on  Unemployment  recommended  the  establishment  in  vacant  loft  build- 
ings of  municipal  workshops  where  the  unemployed  of  these  classes 
could  manufacture  for  themselves  simple  clothing  and  household  utensils. 

In  England,  to  prevent  unemployment  during  the  war,  the  govern- 
ment appropriated  large  sums  to  help  the  local  authorities  in  building 
schools,  hospitals,  sanatoria,  workingmen's  houses,  street  railroads, 
improving  roads,  bridges  and  parks,  afforestation,  reclamation  of  waste 
lands  and  in  other  needed  public  improvements.  Workers  were  hired 
through  the  labor  exchanges  without  special  reference  to  their  non- 
employment  and  were  paid  standard  rates. 

11 


in.  REGULARIZATION  OF  INDUSTRY.  Side  by  side 
with  the  movements  for  public  labor  exchanges  and  for  system- 
atic distribution  of  public  work  should  go  the  movement  for  the 
regularization  of  industry  itself,  through  the  combined  efforts 
of  employers,  employees  and  the  consuming  public. 

Regularization  is  demanded  by  the  interests  of  employer 
and  employee  alike.  The  employer,  with  an  expensive  plant, 
requires  steady  production  to  keep  down  overhead  expenses 
and  to  gain  his  greatest  profit ;  the  employee  needs  steady  work 
to  prevent  destitution  and  demoralization. 

1.  Regularization  by  Employers.  In  the  regularization  of 
industry  a  large  responsibility  lies  directly  upon  employers  to 
regularize  their  own  businesses.  Every  attempt  should  be 
made  within  the  limits  of  each  business  to  make  every  job  a 
steady  job.  Sincere  efforts  in  this  direction  on  the  part  of  the 
employer  can  accomplish  much.  Among  the  things  which  he 
can  do  are: 

(1)  Establishment  of  an  Employment  Department.  The 
employer  should  establish,  as  part  of  his  organization,  an  em- 
ployment department,  having  at  its  head  an  employment  man- 
ager whose  special  duty  it  is  to  study  the  problems  of  unemploy- 
ment in  the  individual  shop  and  to  devise  ways  of  meeting 
them.    Such  a  department  would  aim  at : 

a.  Reduction  of  the  "Turnover"  of  Labor.  By  a  study  of  its 
causes  through  records  of  "hiring  and  firing,"  reduction  could  be  made 
in  the  "turnover"  of  labor  which  is  at  present  so  excessive  that  factories 
frequently  hire  and  discharge  1,000  men  in  a  year  to  keep  up  a  force 
of  300. 

b.  Reduction  of  Fluctuations  of  Employment  Inside  the  Shop. 
Among  the  methods  that  might  be  used  for  this  purpose  are: 

(a)  Systematic  transfer  of  workers  between  departments. 

A  Massachusetts  candy  factory  has  succeeded,  through  trans- 
ferring workers  between  departments,  in  overcoming  the  usual 
irregularity  of  the  industry  and  in  keeping  its  force  at  the  same 
level  throughout  the  year. 

(b)  Employing  all  on  part  time  rather  than  laying  ofiF  part  of  the 
force. 

This  policy  was  widely  recommended  in  the  winter  of  1914-1915, 
notably    by    the    unemploynaent    commissions    of   New   York   and 

14 


Chicago,  and  by  the  chamber  of  commerce  of  Detroit.  A  Urge 
New  Hampshire  shoe  factory  employed  half  of  its  regular  force 
each  alternate  week  with  complete  success. 

(r)  Arranging  working  force  in  groups  and  keeping  higher  groups 
employed  continuously.  Those  in  lower  groups  will  then  be  encouraged 
to  keep  out  of  tiie  industry  altogether,  or  to  combine  it  with  some  other 
occupations  to  which  they  can  regularly  turn  in  the  dull  season. 

(d)  Keeping  before  the  attention  of  the  rest  of  the  organization  the 
importance  of  regularizing  employment. 

Many  progressive  firms  are  now  engaging  the  services  of  employ- 
ment managers,  and  in  Boston  and  New  York  employment  managers' 
associations  have  been  formed  for  the  co-operative  study  of  their 
problems. 


(2)  Regulation  of  Output.  The  employer  should  regu- 
late his  output  and  distribute  it  as  evenly  as  possible  through- 
out the  year.    Methods  to  this  end  are: 

a.  Record  Keeping  and  Forward  Planning.  Yearly  curves  should 
be  kept,  showing  production,  sales  and  deliveries  day  by  day,  week  by 
week,  and  month  by  month;  and  an  effort  should  be  made  each  year 
to  level  the  curve  and  to  smooth  out  the  "peak  load."  Production 
should,  when  possible,  be  planned  at  least  six  months  ahead. 

A  manufacturer  of  Christmas  novelties  keeps  production  regular 
throughout  the  year  by  sending  out  samples  and  booking  orders  one 
year  in  advance. 

b.  Building  Up  Slack  Season  Trade.  Special  instructions  should 
be  given  to  sales  departments  and  to  traveling  salesmen  to  urge 
customers  to  place  orders  for  delivery  during  the  slack  season.  Special 
advertising  also  stimulates  trade  in  dull  periods. 

Some  firms  threaten  delayed  delivery  on  goods  at  tiie  height 
of  the  season.  Many  firms  offer  especially  low  prices  in  the  dtdl 
season,  grant  special  discounts,  make  special  cheap  lines,  or  even 
do  business  without  a  profit  simply  to  keep  their  organization 
together  and  to  supply  work  for  their  forces.  The  mine  owners 
by  selling  anthracite  coal  50  cents  a  ton  cheaper  in  April  than  in 
November  have  adjusted  its  sale  and  production  so  that  work  at 
the  mines  is  more  evenly  distributed  throughout  the  year. 

c.  Keeping  a  Stock  Department  and  Making  to  Stock  as  Liberally 
as  Possible  in  the  Slack  Season.  The  making  of  goods  to  stock  requires 
the  tying-up  of  a  certain  amount  of  capital,  but  many  employers  fed 
this  to  be  balanced  by  the  gain  in  contentment  among  the  workers  and 

15 


t'ft^ 


the  increase  of  efficiency  and  team  spirit  in  the  organization.  They 
have  the  further  advantage  of  being  able  to  supply  goods  immedrately 
on  order. 

This  method  keeps  many  firms  busy.  It  is  more  di£Bcult  in 
industries  where  goods  are  perishable  or  where  style  is  an  important 
factor,  as  in  garment  making  and  shoe  making,  but  even  here  there 
are  conspicuous  examples  of  its  success.  Other  manufacturers 
deliberately  follow  a  conservative  style  policy,  or  concentrate  the 
making  of  staple  styles  in  the  slack  season. 

d.  "Going  After''  Steady  Rather  Than  Speculative  Business.  Well 
organized  business  with  a  steady  demand  and  a  regular  and  sure  profit 
can  afford  to  dispense  with  the  irregular  and  unreliable  gains  of  a 
speculative  business  which  often  involve  disorganization  and  irr^ularity 
of  production. 

e.  Careful  Study  of  Market  Conditions  and  Adjustment  of  the 
Business  to  Take  Advantage  of  Them.  A  broad  market  provides  more 
regular  business  than  a  narrow  one.  Foreign  trade  supplements  domestic 
trade,  and  orders  often  arrive  from  southern  and  far  western  markets 
when  the  eastern  market  is  slack.  A  diversity  of  customers  will  usually 
provide  a  more  regular  demand  than  concentration  on  one  or  two  large 
buyers.  The  retail  trade  will  often  take  a  manufacturer's  goods  just 
when  the  wholesale  season  has  stopped. 

In  the  shoe  industry  the  ownership  of  chains  of  retail  stores 
has  enabled  some  manufacturers  to  regularize  their  business  con- 
siderably, and  a  garment  manufacturer  who  owns  his  own  retail 
store  is  able  to  stock  that  just  as  soon  as  his  wholesale  orders 
run  slack. 

/.  Developing  New  Lines  and  Complementary  Industries.  A  diver- 
sity of  products  will  often  help  to  regularize  a  business.  Many  manu- 
facturers study  their  plant,  the  nature  of  their  material  and  the  character 
of  the  market  to  see  whether  they  cannot  add  new  lines  to  supplement 
those  they  have  and  fill  in  business  in  the  slack  seasons. 

One  rubber  shoe  manufacturer,  for  example,  adds  rubber  sheet- 
ing, rubber  heels,  tennis  shoes,  rubber  cloth  and  rubber  tires,  and 
achieves  a  fairly  regular  business. 

g.  Overcoming  Weather  Conditions.  Special  refrigerating,  heat- 
ing, moistening,  drying  or  other  apparatus  proves  effective  in  many 
industries  in  enabling  operations  to  be  continued  even  in  unfavorable 
weather.  Even  in  the  building  trade  the  amount  of  winter  work  can  be 
increased  by  provision  for  covering  or  enclosing  and  heating  work 
under  construction. 

Brick  making  has  been  made  a  regular  twelve  months'  industry 
instead  of  a  seasonal  six  months'  industry  by  the  introduction  of 
artificial  drying. 

16 


(3)  Co-operation  with  Other  Employers.  Employers  could 
by  collective  action  do  much  to  diminish  the  extent  of  unemploy- 
ment and  to  abolish  trade  abuses  which  lead  to  it.  For  instance, 
they  could  co-operate  to: 

a.  Arrange  for  Interchange  of  Workers.  A  number  of  employeri 
in  the  same  or  in  related  industries  could  arrange  to  take  their  labor 
from  a  central  source  and  to  transfer  workers  between  establishments 
according  to  the  respective  fluctuations  in  business.  This  would  prevent 
the  wasteful  system  of  maintaining  a  separate  reserve  of  labor  for 
each  plant.  The  best  agency  for  effecting  this  transfer  is,  of  course, 
the  public  labor  exchange. 

The  building  trades  employers  of  Boston  have  agreed  to  hire 
all  their  labor  from  one  central  source.  The  result  is  that  the 
workmen  are  directed  without  delay  from  one  employer  to  another 
and  secure  much  more  regular  work. 

b.  Provide  Diversity  of  Industries.  Through  chambers  of  com- 
merce or  similar  organizations  an  effort  should  be  made  to  provide 
communities  with  diversified  industries  whose  slack  seasons  come  at 
different  times,  so  as  to  facilitate  dovetailing  of  employments. 

c.  Prevent  Development  of  Plant  and  Machinery  Far  Beyond 
Normal  Demand.  An  installation  of  equipment,  the  capacity  of  which 
is  far  in  excess  of  orders  normally  to  be  expected,  is  not  only  a 
financial  burden,  but  it  is  a  continual  inducement  toward  rush  orders 
and  irregular  operation. 

In  some  industries  this  unhealthy  tendency  is  counteracted  by 
the  distribution  of  excessive  orders  among  other  firms  whose  busi- 
ness  is  slack. 

d.  Prevent  Disorganisation  of  Production  Due  to  Cut-Throat 
Competition.  Agreements  can  in  some  cases  be  made  to  restrict  extreme 
styles  and  other  excessively  competitive  factors  which  serve  to  dis- 
organize production. 

A  shoe  manufacturers'  association  has  successfully  carried  out 
agreements  fixing  the  styles  they  will  manufacture  during  th« 
season. 

(4)  CO-OPERATION  with  OtHER  EFFORTS  TO  REGULARIZE  EM- 
PLOYMENT. Employers  should  co-operate  with  all  other  efforts 
put  forth  in  the  community  to  regularize  employment,  especially 
with  the  piiblic  employment  exchanges.  Employers  should 
make  a  special  point  of  securing  as  much  of  their  help  as  pos- 
sible from  these  exchanges. 

17 


\ 


r 


•  -rif^ 


>::<:  . 


2.  Regulamation  by  the  Workers.  The  workers  them- 
selves have  a  special  opportunity  and  responsibility  in  the  cam- 
paign against  unemployment.  There  is  a  growing  realization 
among  them  that  regularity  of  employment  is  as  important  to 
the  worker  as  a  fair  wage,  and  that  poor  employment  lowers 
the  standard  of  life  as  much  as  if  not  more  than  poor  wages. 
There  are  evidences  that  they  no  longer  feel  resigned  to  un- 
employment as  a  necessary  and  inevitable  consequence  of  the 
industrial  organization,  that  they  are  expressing  their  indigna- 
tion at  the  distress  so  caused,  and  are  seeking  means  of  relief. 
As  measures  against  unemployment  individually  and  through 
their  organizations  they  should : 

(1)  Support  the  General  Program  Here  Outlined.  Parts 
especially  recommending  themselves  for  support  by  the  workers 
are: 

a.  Establishment  of  the  principle  of  elasticity  of  working  time 
rather  than  elasticity  of  working  force.  Double  pay  should  be  enforced 
for  overtime,  however,  thus  compelling  the  employer  to  spread  out 
production  more  evenly  through  the  year. 

When  part  of  the  mines  in  a  commiinity  shut  down  the  organ- 
ised workers  in  the  other  mines  frequently  divide  their  work  with 
the  men  thrown  out. 

b.  Encouragement  of  public  employment  exchanges  as  the  recog- 
nized agency  for  securing  employment  and  for  registering  unemploy- 
ment statistics. 


of     public    work    and    provision    of 


c.    Systematic     distribution 
emergency  work 

>d.    Public  unemployment  insurance. 

e.    Foundation  of   a  thorough   system   of  economic  education   and 
industrial  training. 

(2)  Place  Less  Insistence  on  Strong  Demarcations  Be- 
tween THE  Trades.  This  would  make  possible  the  keeping  of 
reserves  for  the  industry  as  a  whole  rather  than  as  at  present 
for  each  separate  trade,  for  each  shop,  and  even  for  each  separate 
operation  within  the  shop.  It  would  also  permit  a  more  compre- 
hensive program  of  industrial  education. 

3.  Regularization  by  Consumers.  Consumers  should  ar- 
range their  orders  and  purchases  to  assist  in  the  regularization 

18 


I 


of  production  and  employment.  The  principle  of  "shop  early," 
which  has  proven  useful  in  diminishing  the  Christmas  rush, 
should  be  extended.  Employers  could  do  much  more  toward 
regularizing  their  output  if  consumers  were  more  responsive 
to  solicitations  to  buy  in  the  slack  season.  Such  requests  are 
often  sent  out  by  employers,  and  too  generally  ignored  by  con- 
sumers. Much  irregularity  is  also  caused  by  sudden,  heavy 
orders  and  by  rush  orders.  A  determination  to  exercise  fore- 
sight and  consideration  in  these  matters  on  the  part  not  onlf 
of  the  ultimate  consumer  but  of  large  wholesalers  and  dealers 
whose  demands  on  the  manufacturer  are  often  capricious  and 
unreasonable,  would  also  assist.  The  slogan  of  the  consumer 
should  become  "Shop  regularly!" 

IV.  UNEMPLOYMENT  INSURANCE.  The  final  link, 
which  unites  into  a  practical  program  the  four  main  methods 
for  the  prevention  of  unemployment,  is  insurance.  Just  as  work- 
men's compensation  has  already  resulted  in  the  nation-wide 
movement  for  "safety  first,"  and  just  as  health  insurance  will 
furnish  the  working  basis  for  a  similar  movement  for  the  con- 
servation of  the  national  health,  so  the  "co-operative  pressure" 
exerted  by  unemployment  insurance  can  and  should  be  utilized 
for  the  prevention  of  unemployment.  For  although  much  regu- 
larization of  industry  can  be  accomplished  through  the  voluntary 
efforts  of  enlightened  employers,  there  is  also  needed  that 
powerful  element  of  social  compulsion  which  can  be  exerted 
through  the  constant  financial  pressure  of  a  carefully  adjusted 
system  of  insurance.  The  adjustment  of  insurance  rates  to  the 
employment  experience  of  the  various  industries,  and  then  the 
further  adjustment  of  costs  to  fit  the  practices  of  individual 
trades  and  establishments  even  within  given  industries,  is  well 
within  the  range  of  possibility. 

To  be  regarded  as  secondary  to  this  function  of  regulari- 
zation is  the  important  provision  of  unemployment  insurance 
for  the  maintenance,  through  out-of-work  benefits,  of  those  re- 
serves of  labor  which  may  still  be  necessary  to  meet  the  unpre- 
vented  fluctuations  of  industry.  The  financial  burden  of  this 
maintenance  should  properly  fall  on  the  industry  (employers  and 
workers  as  a  whole)  and  upon  the  consuming  public,  rather 
than  upon  the  fraction  of  the  workers  who  are  in  no  way  respon- 

19 


•  f  If ' 


I 


sible  for  industrial  fluctuations  and  who  are  as  essential,  even 
in  their  periods  of  unemployment,  to  the  well-being  of  industry 
as  are  the  reserves  of  an  army.  Furthermore,  it  is  as  important 
ior  industry  as  for  the  workers  themselves  that  their  character 
and  physique  be  preserved  during  periods  of  unemployment  so 
that  they  may,  when  called  for,  return  to  industry  with  unim- 
paired efficiency,  and  may  be  preserved  from  dropping  into  the 
ranks  of  the  unemployable  where  they  will  constitute  a  much 
more  serious  problem. 

Some  form  of  unemployment  insurance  exists  in  most  of  the 
countries  of  Europe.  Three  methods  of  insurance,  which  can  be  either 
combined  or  organized  independently,  have  been  developed: 

1.  Organization  of  Out-of-Work  Benefits  by  Trade  Unions. 
This  method  has  proven  successful  to  some  extent  in  Europe 
and  has  been  used  to  a  limited  degree  in  the  United  States. 

The  Cigar  Makers'  International  Union  of  America  has  had  a 
successful  system  of  out-of-work  benefits  since  1890.  In  1912  it  paid 
out  $42,911.05  in  out-of-work  benefits,  at  a  cost  of  $1.06  per  member. 

2.  Public  Subsidies  to  Trade  Union  Out-of-Work  Benefits. 
As  the  "Ghent  System,*'  invented  by  Dr.  Varlez,  the  inter- 
national secretary  of  the  Association  on  Unemployment,  this 
method  of  administering  unemployment  insurance  has  become 
well  known  throughout  western  Europe. 

Approximately  600,000  workers  in  Great  Britain,  111,000  in  Denmark, 
103,000  in  Belgium,  29,000  in  Holland,  and  27,000  in  Norway  were,  on 
January  1,  1914,  insured  against  unemployment  under  this  system,  which 
was  also  in  operation  in  Luxemburg,  certain  cities  of  France  and  Italy, 
and  in  certain  cantons  of  Switzerland. 

3.  Public  Unemployment  Insurance.  In  this  employers, 
workers  and  the  state  should  become  joint  contributors.  Such 
a  system  should  be  carried  on  in  close  connection  with  the  labor 
exchanges,  for  the  exchanges  furnish,  particularly  when  their 
knowledge  of  opportunities  for  private  employment  is  supple- 
mented by  an  intelligent  adjustment  of  public  works,  the  best 
possible  "work  test"  for  the  unemployed  applicant  for  insurance 
benefits.  Possible  abuses  of  the  insurance  system  may  thus  be 
thwarted.  During  the  process  both  employers  and  workers 
Icam  to  make  use  of  the  exchanges  as  centers  of  information 
and  thereby  help  to  organize  the  labor  market.    And  of  crown- 

20  / 


ing  importance  in  the  movement  toward  regularization  of  indus- 
try is  the  careful  development  of  this  form  of  insurance  with 
its  continuous  pressure  toward  the  prevention  of  unemploy- 
ment. 

Compulsory  nation-wide  insurance  against  unemployment  is  found 
in  Great  Britain,  where  a  law  providing  insurance  for  2,500,000  wage- 
earners  in  six  selected  industries  went  into  effect  on  July  15,  1912.  The 
successful  working  of  the  system  points  toward  its  early  extension. 
Employer  and  employee  each  pay  5  cents  weekly,  payments  being 
made,  as  with  health  insurance,  through  fixing  stamps  in  a  book,  and  a 
state  subsidy  is  added  amounting  to  one-third  of  the  annual  receipts 
from  dues.  The  annual  income  has  been  approximately  $11,500,000,  and 
$2,488,625  were  paid  out  to  about  1,000,000  cases  during  the  year  ending 
January  16,  1914.  The  large  reserve  fund  which  is  accumulating  is 
expected  to  meet  the  drain  of  future  hard  times.  The  workman  may 
receive  a  cash  benefit  from  the  second  to  the  sixteenth  week  of  unem- 
ployment in  each  year,  under  the  following  conditions:  (1)  He  must 
have  worked  in  one  of  the  selected  occupations  at  least  twenty-sii^ 
weeks  in  each  of  the  preceding  three  years;  (2)  his  unemployment  must 
not  1}e  caused  by  a  strike  or  by  his  own  fault;  (3)  he  must  accept  work 
of  equal  value  if  found  for  him  by  the  labor  exchange.  Less  than  2 
per  cent  of  all  the  cases  have  been  found  to  be  still  out  of  work  at  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  week. 

In  advance  of  the  careful  grading  of  industries  according  to  the 
degree  of  irregularity  of  employment,  this  British  system  offers  financial 
inducements  to  employers  to  keep  their  working  force  regularly 
employed.  An  annual  refund  of  75  cents  is  made  for  each  of  their 
workers  who  has  been  employed  forty-five  weeks  during  the  year. 
Moreover,  an  ingenious  provision  of  the  law  entitles  any  work- 
man over  sixty  years  of  age  who  has  been  insured  more  than  ten  years 
and  who  has  paid  more  than  500  weekly  contributions  to  a  refund  of 
his  total  payments  minus  his  total  benefits,  with  compound  interest  at 
2%  per  cent.  This  provision  is  intended  to  commend  the  system  to  the 
especially  skilled  and  trusty  workmen  who  runs  little  risk  of  losing 
his  job. 


OTHER  HELPFUL  MEASURES 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  measures,  which  are  directly 
aimed  at  the  prevention  of  unemployment,  the  following  policies, 
initiated  primarily  for  a  variety  of  other  social  purposes,  would 
also  prove  helpful: 

1.  Industrial  training,  both  of  young  people  and  of  adults, 
should  be  encouraged.  Every  advance  in  his  skill  strengthens 
the  hold  of  the  worker  upon  his  job,  and  a  wider  industrial 

21 


^L 


1 


fT** 


training  makes  possible  for  him  adaptation  to  various  kinds 
of  work.  Children,  especially,  should  not  be  permitted  to  go  to 
work  without  sufficient  industrial  training  to  prevent  their  being 
used  as  casual  labor,  and  should  be  discouraged  from  entering 
"blind-alley"  employments  which  destroy  rather  than  develop 
mdustrial  ability.  For  those  who  go  to  work  early,  the  system 
of  continuation  schools,  now  found  in  many  states,  should  be  still 
further  developed.  The  idea,  also,  that  industrial  training  and 
education  are  not  feasible  for  the  adult  worker  should  be  abandoned. 

2.  An  agricultural  revival  should  be  promoted  to  make 
rural  life  more  attractive  and  to  keep  people  on  the  land. 

3.  A  constructive  immigration  policy,  concerned  with  both 
industrial  and  agricultural  aspects  of  the  problem,  should  be 
developed  for  the  proper  distribution  of  America's  enormous 
immigration. 

4.  Reducing  the  number  of  young  workers  by  excluding 
child  labor  up  to  16  years  of  age  and  restricting  the  hours  of 
young  people  under  18  would  lessen  the  number  of  the  unskilled. 

5.  Reduction  of  excessive  working  hours,  especially  in 
occupations  where  the  time  of  attendance  and  not  the  speed 
of  the  worker  is  the  essential  factor  (such  as  ticket  chopping 
and  *bus  driving)  would  increase  to  a  certain  extent  the  demand 
for  labor. 

6.  Constructive  care  of  the  unemployable,  who  are  them- 
selves largely  the  product  of  unemployment,  must  be  devised, 
with  the  aim  of  restoring  them,  whenever  possible,  to  normal 
working  life.  The  problem  of  these  persons  is  distinct  from 
that  of  the  capable  unemployed,  and  should  not  be  confused 
with  it.  For  the  different  groups  appropriate  treatment  is 
required,  including  (1)  adequate  health  insurance  for  the  sick, 
(2)  old  age  pensions  for  the  aged,  (3)  industrial  or  agricultural 
training  for  the  inefficient,  (4)  segregation  for  the  feebleminded, 
and  (5)  penal  farm  colonies  for  the  "won't  works"  and  semi- 
criminal. 


22 


vi. 


r 


PUBLICATIONS  ON  UNEMPLOYMENT 

The  quarterly  American  Labor  Legislation  Review  is  a  special- 
ized magazine  devoted  to  improving  industrial  conditions.  The 
second  number  for  1915  is  a  400  page  volume  dealing  entirely 
with  Unemployment  Problems.    Among  the  subjects  treated  are 

Seasonal   Trades. 

Regularization  of  Industry. 

Organization    of    Public    Employment    Bureaus. 

Unemployment    Insurance. 

Juvenile  Employment  Exchanges. 

Irregular  Employment  and  the   Living  Wage   for   Women. 

Adjustment  of  Public  Works. 

Select  Bibliography. 

To  those  entering  their  subscriptions  to  the  Review  at  once  we 
will,  upon  request,  send  free  of  cost  the  Proceedings  of  the  First 
National  Conference  on  Unemployment  (1914,  210  pp.  Price  $1). 
Among  the  contributors  to  these  two  volumes  are: 

Frederick  C.  Howe 

Juliet  Stuart  Poyntz 

Charles    R.    Henderson 

Meyer  London 

Irene   Osgood  Andrews 

Robert   G.  Valentine 

John  B.  Andrews 

Henry  R.  Scager 

John  Mitchell  i 

Charles  B.  Barnes 

But  one  edition  of  the  Review  is  published.  Orders  should 
be  placed  immediately.  Annual  subscription  $3,  includes  individual 
membership.  Remittances  may  be  made  payable  to  Adolph  Lewi- 
sohn,  Treasurer,  and  mailed  to  John  B.  Andrews,  Secretary,  131 
East  23rd  Street,  New  York  City. 


.V    ti 


' 


; 


Ameriran  ABBonattan  ntt  Inpmttlagmrnt         \ 

American  Section  of  the  Internationa]  Association  on  Unemplojrment 


IN    AFFILIATION    WITH 


American  Association  for  Labor  Legislation 


Porpoae:  To  co-ordlaate  the  efforts  made  in  America  to  combat  unemployment  and 
ita  conaequencea,  to  oicanize  atndies.  to  gire  information  to  tlie  pablic,  and  to  take 
the  initiative  in  shapinc  improTed  lecialation  and  administration,  and  practical  actio* 
is  limes  oi  arsent  need. 


AMERICAN  SECTION 

President:  Charles  R.  Crane,  Chairman 
of  the  Chicago  Commission  on  the  Un- 
employed. 

Executive  Committee :  Henry  S.  Dennison, 
Boston;  Charles  P.  Neill,  New 
Brighton.  S.  I. ;  John  Mitchell,  Mt. 
Vernon,  N.  Y. ;  Charles  R.  Hender- 
son, Chicago;  and  the  President. 

Secretary:  John  B.  Andrews,  131  East 
23rd  St.,  New  York  City. 


INTERNATIONAL 

President:  Leon  Bourgeois,  Senator,  ex- 
President  of  the  Council  of  Ministers, 
Paris. 

Vice-President:  Richard Freund,  President 
of  the  German  Union  of  Employment 
Offices,  Director  of  the  Bureau  of  In- 
validity, Berlin. 

General  Secretary :  Louis  Varlez,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Unemployment  Fund  and  of 
the  Labor  Exchange  of  Ghent. 


[Individual  membership,  including  International  Bulletin  on  Unemployment  (Quarterly)  $2] 

Official  publications  of  American  Section :  Supplements  on  Unemployment 
to  American  Labor  Legislation  Review 


At  the  reqnest  of  the  parent  organization,  and  for  the  specific  purpose  of  aroiding  an- 
aecessary  expenae  and  the  annoyance  of  duplication  of  effort,  the  Americaa  Section  of 
the  International  Association  on  Unemployment  wu  organized  in  1912,  in  close  affilia- 
tion with  the  American  Association  for  Labor  Legislation.  To  this  end  the  constitution 
of  the  former  provides  that  the  secretary  and  treasurer,  as  well  as  three  of  the  members 
of  the  ezecative  committee  of  the  latter,  serve  in  the  same  capacity  for  the  unemploy- 
ment association.  Thus  the  two  organizations  are  working  in  complete  harmony  for 
the  stddy  and  preveMtioa  of  unemployment  in  America. 


The  American  Association  on  Unemploymient  is  supported  ientirely  by  voluntary  contri- 
butions.    We  invite  the  co-operation  of  every  earnest  man  and  woman  who  believes  in  the 
iit7of4luswotk.  -    .     —  -  • 


6AYLAAA0UNT 

PAMPHLET  BINDER 


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American  Association  on 
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